It's still not easy being Green

Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb was the guest on C-Span this morning, and though many people called to offer him support and to bemoan the sad state of the American election system, there were also callers who just didn't have a clue.

One man, who had never before heard of Cobb, commented that Cobb was the most liberal person he had ever seen, and that if the Green Party's platform were to become law, "we'd all pay 75% of our income in taxes." Cobb calmly explained to him the obvious: that if very wealthy people paid their share, if corporations were fairly taxed, and if the military were built to perform its intended duty, there would be more than enough money to pay for needed social and environmental programs. I wondered what the man thought of Cobb's answer. It is amazing that Americans do not see the many ways they are cheated by the horrors of the tax system.

A woman called in to say that she disagreed with Cobb and thought he shouldn't be on the ballot. He found her comment frightening, as indeed it was. But why would she want the Green Party off of the ballot if there was not something threatening about it to her? Cobb remarked that despite the media's refusal to recognize the Green Party, it just keeps growing. There really are many of us who believe that only systemic change can save America from totally destroying its environment, its middle class, its world status, and its move toward church/state alliance. Poverty, racism, sexism, a lack of health care, and the rapid erosion of civil liberties are major problems in the U.S., but you wouldn't know it from hearing the election speeches.